Meghan McCain says Sadler should have expected her ‘he’s dying anyway’ remark to be leaked

The McCain family is responding after a White House staffer allegedly ‘joked’ about Sen. John McCain, who is battling brain cancer.USA TODAY

On Monday’s taping of The View, Meghan McCain rejected the excuse that a White House communication staffer’s joke about her father’s battle with brain cancer should never have been made public.

Kelly Sadler, a communications aide in President Trump’s administration, reportedly said during a meeting Thursday that Sen. John McCain’s opposition to CIA nominee Gina Haspel “doesn’t matter” because “he’s dying anyway.”

“If you’re a public figure and if you’re working in the White House you should expect everything you’re saying in any context to be leaked,” Meghan McCain said. “If someone said something that egregious and intense on this show backstage, I’d expect it to be on The Daily Mail in eight seconds.”

Press secretary Sarah Sanders reportedly berated the White House communications staff Friday about Sadler’s remark being leaked to the news media. According to CNN, Sanders also said Sadler’s comment was inappropriate but overall “has focused more on the leaking of the comment than its substance.”

White House spokesman Raj Shah told reporters Monday that some staff members were upset that details of a private meeting were leaked to the news media.

When asked if the White House was more concerned about the leaks than the nature of Sadler’s remark, Shah said the “matter has been addressed internally.” Shah also said Sadler called the McCain family to apologize for the remarks last week before the story became public.

In this March 22, 2018 photo, special assistant to President Donald Trump, Kelly Sadler attends a forum at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House complex in Washington.(Photo: Manuel Balce Ceneta, AP)

“I have not spoken to her since, and I assume that it will never come,” The View co-host said Sunday.

Matt Schlapp, the chairman of the American Conservative Union, said he felt Sadler is “a little bit of a victim here” because, “the people who leaked what she said are people who have an animus against her.”

Schlapp also defended Sadler’s remark as “a perfectly logical thing to say,” during an interview on CNN Monday. He backed the lack of a public apology from Sadler or the White House on the grounds that, “Once you start commenting about leaks out of those meetings, you will never be able to appropriately run your agenda.”